Greetings from The Gambia! We have been learning all about Lent and Pancake day!

Lent is the forty days (not counting Sundays) before Easter. This is the time of year in England when the days begin to get longer with the coming of Spring. Lent begins the day after Pancake Day. The last week of Lent begins with Palm Sunday, which celebrates the day Jesus entered Jerusalem and the people lay down palms at his feet.

Lent is 40 days to mark Jesus fasting in the desert. During Lent Christians used to fast (give up food) but nowadays people try to give up something like chocolate. Lent is a time when Christians remember the 40 days that Jesus spent in the desert without food

The origins of pancake day and eating pancakes arose from Christians observing lent wanting to use up all the rich foods in their cupboards before Lent started. During Lent eggs, sugar and butter were not allowed so these ingredients were used to make pancakes.

We are going to make some pancakes for the first time! Do you like pancakes?

First we weighed some flour into a mixing bowl!

Then we cracked 2 eggs into the bowl with the flour

Then we added milk to the flour and eggs!

We then whisked it all together!

Now the pancake mixture is ready we need to cook it in a frying pan!

First we heated up the frying pan on an outside stove and added butter to fry the pancake mixture in

Then when the butter had melted we added some of the pancake mixture!

Once the pancake mixture is fried in the frying pan it looks like this and is ready to put on a plate!

Most people season pancakes before eating them, the most popular are lemon juice and sugar!

Here we are adding lemon and sugar to the pancakes, they smell delicious!

… and they taste even better! Yum Yum

Will you be making pancakes this pancake day? We wonder what you season your pancakes with? Maybe you could write and tell us!

Well that’s all from us for now! We hope you have a great pancake day and we hear from you soon!